Agency Report –
A 29-year-old robotics researcher from Berlin has become the first German woman in space, blasting off on board a SpaceX rocket late on Monday.
Rabea Rogge was one of four “international adventurers” setting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida in a launch broadcast live by SpaceX.
According to the German Aerospace Center, Rogge is the 13th German national to achieve space flight – but the first woman among them.
During the three- to five-day mission on board SpaceX’s Dragon capsule, the team will look at the Earth’s polar regions to examine a phenomenon known as “Steve” involving purple ribbons in the sky, resembling the northern lights.
Rogge studied electrical engineering and information technology at ETH Zurich before transferring to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, where she is completing her doctoral thesis.
She was invited on the flight by the Chinese-born Maltese national Chun Wang, a cryptocurrency billionaire who funded and commissioned the mission.
Wang and Rogge reportedly met during training for an expedition to the northern Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
A Norwegian filmmaker and an Australian polar explorer are also on board, but none of the crew members are trained astronauts or hold pilot licences.
“Our crew is strong, our training is intensive and our goal is not only to overcome boundaries, but also to create new opportunities for space travel and science,” Rogge told dpa ahead of the launch.
“History was made today,” said Walther Pelzer, director general of the German Space Agency. Rogge will “inspire many young people to get excited about science and technology,” he said.
However, a former head of the European Space Agency (ESA) warned on German radio station rbb24 against the misuse of space travel for tourism purposes.
Every rocket launch is a burden on the environment, said Jan Wörner, who led the ESA between 2015 and 2021.
“I hope that we don’t start moving cruise ships into space now,” said Wörner.
SpaceX said the mission, called Fram2 after a 19th-century Norwegian polar research ship, will produce the first X-ray images of humans in space and investigate how mushrooms grow in zero gravity.
It will travel at an altitude of 425 to 450 kilometres.
“With this mission, we want to show a pioneering spirit, arouse curiosity and demonstrate technological innovation,” Rogge told dpa.
She added: “I find it really encouraging to see how far we have come as a human race – if it is possible to build autonomous spaceships, then anything should be possible.”
By Christina Horsten and Wolfgang Jung
